Mexican Lorena Ochoa, World's #1 Woman Golfer, Retires News Around the Republic of Mexico Mexican Lorena Ochoa, World's #1 Woman Golfer, Retires Allan Wall - PVNN June 01, 2010 Lorena Ochoa was the world's top-ranked female golfer from 2007 to 2010. On May 2nd, 2010, Lorena Ochoa, the world's top-rated woman golfer, played her last pro tournament and retired from the game, at the age of 28. She gracefully bowed out of a successful career as the highest rated Mexican golfer (of either gender) in history. Lorena Ochoa was the world's top-ranked female golfer from 2007 to 2010. The sport of golf was apparently invented in the 1100s by shepherds in Scotland who knocked rocks into rabbit holes. The place where they invented the game is now known as the Old Course of St. Andrews (more on that later). Golf is still predominantly played in English-speaking countries.

The ten countries with the most golf courses per capita are Scotland (still #1), New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, the U.S., Sweden and England. Notice that with the exception of Sweden, all are English-speaking countries. I remember NFL quarterback Jim McMahon complaining after a trip to Europe about the lack of golf on the old continent. Nevertheless, the game's popularity has been increasing outside the Anglo sphere, notably in East Asia. In Latin America, there are now more golf players and courses than ever before . In the Mexican metropolitan area in which I resided for a decade and a half, there was a very nice golf course, and a couple more new ones were added during my stay there. Lorena Ochoa was born in 1981 to a well-to-do family in Guadalajara, Mexico. Her family actually lived on the grounds of the Guadalajara Country Club so it wasn't surprising that she started playing golf at the age of five. Little Lorena was soon competing, winning a state competition when she was 6 and a national competition at seven. By the age of 8 she was #1 in the Junior World Ranking.

When she was 11, Lorena was at the Guadalajara Country Club and asked professional golfer Rafael Alarcon to help her improve her golf game, telling him her goal was to be the world's best player. Alarcon became her coach. Lorena continued to win golf victories in Mexico and wound up winning five consecutive titles at the Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego California. She eventually received a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona, where she began attending in 2000. Besides playing golf, she was able to improve her English there. She studied sports psychology. Lorena's college-level golf career was quite successful. She won the NCAA Player of the Year Award in 2001 and 2002, and set several NCAA records (seven consecutive victories in her initial seven competitions and the single-season NCAA scoring average record as a freshman). After her sophomore year, Lorena Ochoa left the University of Arizona to go pro. She did well on the 2002 Futures Tour and earned entry into the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) in 2003. By 2004 she had won her first title, the Franklin American Mortgage Championship.

It was the first triumph by a Mexican player on an LPGA tour. In 2007, at the age of 25, she became the world's #1 woman golfer, a ranking she maintained until her retirement in May of 2010. Lorena Ochoa won the 2007 Ricoh Women's British Open (played that year at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, the world's oldest golf course because golf was invented there). She also won the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship. Other victories included the 2009 Honda LPGA Thailand and the 2009 Navistar LPGA Classic in Alabama. In Mexico she won the Corona Morelia Championship in 2006 and the same tournament (renamed Corona Championship) in 2008 and 2009. Lorena Ochoa was named the AP Female Athlete of the Year in 2006 and 2007, and the Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

In 2008, the ESPN cable network awarded her the Best International Athlete ESPY Award. She won the Mexico National Sports Award in 2006 and 2007. As for LPGA Tour Awards, Lorena Ochoa won a number of them. She won the LPGA rookie of the year award in 2003 She was named the Rolex Player of the Year Award (based on a points system based on top-10 finishes) in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She won the Vare Trophy in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. This is awarded for the lowest average season score. (In golf, unlike other sports, the lower the score the better). And, Lorena Ochoa did very well financially. She was the LPGA Tour Money Winner in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Also in 2008, Lorena started her own LPGA tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, at the Guadalajara Country Club where she'd learned to play. It's sponsored by Banamex and Corona Light. At the height of her career, on April 20th, 2010, Lorena Ochoa announced her upcoming retirement from golf. Why did she retire? For one thing, she had reached the top and there was really nowhere else to go. Her goal had been to be the #1 player, and she had achieved that. Now she wants to spend more time with her Lorena Ochoa Foundation (an educational charity ), and to her own family. In December of 2009, Lorena Ochoa had married Andres Conesa, CEO of Aeromexico (a Mexican airline). Conesa brought three children to the marriage, making her an instant stepmother. Now she'd like to have her own children Her last LPGA tournament was the 2010 Tres Marias Championship (formerly Corona Championship) in Morelia, Mexico, from April 29th to May 2nd.

Although retiring, Lorena Ochoa is not giving up golf entirely. She is keeping her LPGA membership and plans to play in her own Lorena Ochoa Invitational. And, she said, "I'm going to leave the door open in case I want to come back in one or two years to play a U.S. Open or a Kraft Nabisco." For now though, her full-time professional career is over. As Lorena Ochoa herself said, "I have so many great memories... But I think overall it's the big picture. It was a Mexican that stayed at the top of the world. It was a new sport for my country, and just the whole process and working hard together, those were great memories I'm going to keep forever." And she also had this to say: "I always say when you're a professional athlete, there is a day when you start, and there's always going to be a day when you finish, and this is the perfect time for me.

I'm very relaxed in a way that this has gone the way I want it to with my beliefs and my reasons." Allan Wall is an American citizen who has been teaching English in Mexico since 1991, and writing articles about various aspects of Mexico and Mexican society for the past decade. Some of these articles are about Mexico's political scene, history and culture, tourism, and Mexican emigration as viewed from south of the border, which you can read on his website at AllanWall.net . Lorena Ochoa | Mexican golfer | Britannica.com Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa, (born Nov. 15, 1981, Guadalajara , Mex.), Mexican golfer who was one of the leading players in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in the early 2000s.

Lorena Ochoa teeing off in the final round of the 2007 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) … Reed Saxon/AP Ochoa, who grew up near the Guadalajara Country Club in Mexico , won 44 Mexican national junior events, plus five consecutive age-group titles (1990–94) at the junior world golf championships in San Diego , Calif. ( Tiger Woods was among the other age-group winners her first two years there.) While attending the University of Arizona , Ochoa was twice National Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year, and in her sophomore year she set an NCAA record with victories in her first seven events. In November 2001 she became the first golfer and youngest athlete to win Mexico’s National Sports Award. After turning professional in 2002, Ochoa topped the money list on the Futures Tour to gain promotion to the LPGA, where she was the 2003 Rookie of the Year. The following year she became the first Mexican-born player to win on the LPGA circuit.

Ochoa’s opening-round 62 in the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship equaled the lowest round ever in major championships. She lost in a play-off to Karrie Webb , but with six wins Ochoa went on to surpass Annika Sörenstam as the tour’s leading money winner in 2006. That season she was named LPGA Player of the Year. Her impressive results continued as she won the 2007 Women’s British Open , the first women’s professional tournament ever staged on the Old Course at St. Andrews . After a number of near misses in other major championships—she had finished in the top 10 in 11 of the previous 15 tournaments—Ochoa dominated at St. Andrews from start to finish. She led by two strokes after her opening-round six-under-par 67, stretched her advantage to six with a round to play, and won by four strokes, despite a one-over-par 74 on the final day. In addition to claiming her first major title, Ochoa also won seven other tournaments in 2007, and she surpassed Sörenstam to become the world number-one-ranked woman player.

The following year she won seven events, including her second major tournament, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She continued to be ranked number one in 2009, as she captured three titles and received her fourth consecutive Player of the Year award. In April 2010, however, Ochoa announced that she would be retiring from competitive play. Lorena Ochoa bumps Sorenstam from top spot in Rolex Rankings - WorldGolf.com Annika Sorenstam to play limited 2007 LPGA Tour schedule with back injury Ochoa moved 0.14 average points ahead of Sorenstam, making her only the second player to hold the No. 1 ranking in women's golf since the rankings were introduced last year and Sorenstam surged to the top spot. Ochoa could have wrestled the ranking away earlier this season with wins at the Kraft Nabisco Championship or Ginn Open , but she came up short at both. However, top-10 finishes in five of six starts this season, including a win at the Safeway International, were enough for Ochoa to realize the climb to No. 1 she started last year.

Ochoa had a brilliant 2006 season, winning six times and capturing her first LPGA Tour Player of the Year award, shifting her pursuit of reaching No. 1 from dream to achievable reality. "I have been dreaming of getting to that position for many, many years," Ochoa said. "I have been getting closer and closer with each year. Finally this year, it could happen. I am right there, close and playing good. I am going to keep it going and get to the top." That Sorenstam has been off the LPGA Tour with a back injury and won't return for at least three weeks has helped Ochoa. And Ochoa could extend her lead over Sorenstam this week with another good finish at the Corona Morelia Championship in her native Mexico. A strong performance looks likely, judging by her past play in Mexico. At last year's Corona, Ochoa shot three straight rounds in the 60s, including a course-record 64 on Saturday, for a five-shot win. "For me, it's like a U.S. Open, being able to play in my country and win in front of my people," she said at the time.

April 24, 2007 World No.1 Ochoa announces retirement - CNN.com World No.1 Ochoa announces retirement Lorena Ochoa has announced her immediate retirement from golf at the age of just 28. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Women's No.1 golfer Lorena Ochoa has confirmed her immediate retirement The 28-year-old Mexican will make the announcment at a press conference on Friday Ochoa has claimed 27 titles during her eight seasons on the LPGA Tour (CNN) -- Lorena Ochoa, the world number one women's golfer, has confirmed on her official Web site that she will announce her retirement in a press conference in Mexico City on Friday. The 28-year-old Mexican has hinted for some time that she was thinking of quitting to start a family, although the official reasons will be unveiled in the press conference. The statement read: "Lorena Ochoa has confirmed her retirement from the LPGA, as some media reported today.

"Lorena personally will let her motives and more details in this respect be known this Friday in a press conference in Mexico City." Video: Lorena Ochoa's rise to number one Ochoa has claimed 27 titles during her eight seasons on the LPGA Tour, winning the British Open in 2007 and the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2008. Rumors of Ochoa's impending retirement have been rife since she married married Andres Conesa -- chief executive of Aeromexico airlines -- last December and is now a stepmother of three children. RELATED TOPICS World No 1 women's golfer Lorena Ochoa savours sweet success - golf - Telegraph Womens Golf World No 1 women's golfer Lorena Ochoa savours sweet success Lorena Ochoa, the defending champion in the Ricoh Women's British Open at Sunningdale and the outstanding player in the field, has admitted to a weakness.

Just desserts: Lorena Ochoa admitted she has a sweet tooth Photo: Getty Images By Lewine Mair 10:27PM BST 30 Jul 2008 It has nothing to do with her chipping or putting, but is her love of a good dessert. "That is my weakness and it's been forever," she sighed. The way this size zero golfer keeps her obsession in check is to decide at the end of a round if her score is worthy of a pudding. "If, tomorrow, I shoot six under, I will say 'OK, I can have one'," she said. At least her 7.14am starting time will have her back at base in time for lunch. Ochoa took over from Annika Sorenstam as world No 1 in 2006, but has no intention of doing as the Swede did in playing until she is 37. Where this is Sorenstam's last major, Ochoa says that she will probably call a halt six years from now, at 31. She has never entertained thoughts of chasing Sorenstam's haul of 10 majors as Tiger Woods is chasing Jack Nicklaus' 18.

"I don't want as many majors as Annika," said the Mexican, who has two. "Annika has been an inspiration but me, I've got too many things I want to do with my life." Karen Stupples, who began eagle-albatross when she bagged the British Women's Open here in 2004, is back to her best form after giving birth to her son, Logan, in April last year. She happily accepted that a baby would play havoc with her schedule. What came as rather more of a shock was the effect he had on her hip turn – "though it all made sense when I thought of how archaeologists can look at some ancient skeleton and tell at once whether a woman has had children". It was Stupples' coach, Chip Koehlke, who noticed last winter that her hips were "out of whack" and locked. "I was sliding into the ball rather than turning," explained the player, who must have prompted any number of golfing mothers to blame their offspring for any deficiency in their hip turns. Melissa Reid, who won the equivalent of the Open's silver medal last year, is now a professional and one who would seem to be out-working the Koreans, if that were possible.

Reid, who has been a guinea pig for Sir Clive Woodward as the latter develops his programme on how to get 100 per cent out of an athlete, says that she has changed her ways completely in the past two years. Instead of visiting the gym twice a week, she now goes every day. And instead of practising for between two and three hours, she is out on the range for 10 to 12. All of which prompted the question as to whether there was a boyfriend in the equation. "There was," she smiled. Lorena Ochoa Couldn't Be Happier With Her Life After Golf Lorena Ochoa Couldn't Be Happier With Her Life After Golf By Melissa Isaacson | Nov 11, 2014 espnW.com Michael Cohen/Getty Images Lorena Ochoa, soon to be 33, is happy and content with her life in Mexico City with husband Andres, son Pedro and daughter Julia. Lorena Ochoa is lucky she has time to entertain the question, much less actually consider the idea of returning to the LPGA Tour.

There are the 10 to 12 fundraisers she plays each year, as well as the numerous other efforts on behalf of her foundation. There are the visits with children whose lives she is clearly changing. And then there is the primary reason she retired from professional golf four years ago at age 28. "My top priority," she calls motherhood. On this day, shrugging off congestion and a bad cough like any mother of two is expected to do, Ochoa is hardly complaining. And yet, happily cocooned in Mexico City with her husband, Andres, and their children -- Pedro, who will be 3 in December, and Julia, who just turned 1 -- Ochoa still finds it necessary to defend what she said in the April 2010 news conference announcing her decision to leave the tour. Francisco Estrada/Getty Images Though secure in her decision to retire at age 28 and ranked No. 1 in the world, Lorena Ochoa couldn't help but shed a few tears. "I'm 100 percent complete," she said at the time to a largely stunned audience.

"It's great news, and I'm super-happy." That she occasionally brushed away tears that day and left open the possibility she would one day return to the life in which she won 27 tournaments and two majors and was the No. 1-ranked player in the world for three years is perhaps the reason she is asked if she is still "super-happy." That the tour, its players and its fans still miss her dearly is more likely the case. "For sure, everybody [in Mexico] thought I would play forever," Ochoa said in a phone interview leading up to this week's Lorena Ochoa Invitational, where she will play in the pro-am. "But for my close friends and family, the people around me, they knew I wanted to stop playing eventually. "Some fans still today don't understand the reason. But I think when you're a woman and want to have a family and kids, it's obvious you have more things to think about.

I was very secure about my decision and can tell you even now, with two little kids, I wouldn't change my life for anything." Trading one full-time job for another The LPGA Tour, while perhaps deeper in talent than it was four years ago, always has room for another radiant personality, and many, such as former star and Ochoa compatriot Nancy Lopez, still harbor hope that one of the brightest will return and reclaim a spot among the leaders. "I just love Lorena and was disappointed more than anything when she left," Lopez said. "She had such a tremendous following who were cheated out of watching some more great golf. "She's also going to have two children who really need to know what their mother did. ... I think it would be a shame if her kids don't see her compete and know she played and was such a great player." More From espnW • Lorena Ochoa's career highlights: Slideshow » Lopez, whom Ochoa calls her role model, remained on the LPGA Tour after each of her three daughters was born.

Fellow Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, a friend of Ochoa's, played with her two daughters traveling along for much of her career, won four of her seven majors after the two were born and this year is one of 21 moms on tour. But Inkster's advice to Ochoa regarding parenthood was blunt. "I was honest with [Lorena]," said Inkster, whose daughters are now 24 and 21. "I told her if you're going to have kids, you'd better be ready because it smacks you straight in the face. It's a full-time job and golf is a full-time job." The talk apparently was not necessary. "Lorena does everything for the right reasons," Inkster said. "She's a person who knows what she wants, and she wanted to have a family, she wanted to stay home. ... She loved golf, but it wasn't the driving force in her life." Waiting for Ochoa in Mexico, in addition to her husband, three stepchildren, her parents, three siblings and their kids, was the dream of having her own children, and those closest to her call her a natural at the job.

Ochoa's husband, Andres Conesa, the CEO of Aeromexico Airlines, laughs as he notes that even with toddlers his wife stresses education and, as her parents did with her, a life in which they will make their own choices, whether it be golf, tennis, horseback riding or music. "She's not the type of mother who's worried about her kids getting wet in the rain," he said. "She's letting them grow in a very free environment but at the same time with strong values. In my view, it's a great combination." 'Godmother' to 355 other children A great mix, as well, they agree, is a life that allows Ochoa the time to fulfill speaking engagements, meet with sponsors and -- closest to her heart next to her family -- work with the Lorena Ochoa Foundation, which devotes most of its resources to La Barranca Educational Center in Guadalajara. Gerardo Zavala/Jam Media/Getty Images Next to family, Lorena Ochoa's work with her foundation is dearest to her heart.

"I've worked with other [charities]," Ochoa said, "but in the end, I could tell education was the only way to really change a kid's life and to break that cycle of [poverty] and the problems like delinquency that go along with being disadvantaged." Ochoa said her school of 355 students ranging from first to 12th grade has had 10 graduating classes. Some former students have gone on to college and returned to work there. "That's the most important thing I do [outside of home]. I love it," Ochoa said. "But I need to get the funds. We need more than 8 million pesos [about $588,000] a year for the foundation to run the full program," which includes daily breakfast, two professors per classroom, sports programs and evening workshops, and health seminars and therapy sessions for the children and their families. The school and its students are her motivation for the tournaments, appearances, speeches and pitches to sponsors that take her away from home an average of about a week a month, though they seldom interfere with bath time and bedtime.

"I want to make sure these children [at La Barranca] receive the education they deserve," she said. "They don't have anything when they start. Some travel two hours in the morning just to get to school. It's so impressive. One boy, he started doing judo with us and made it to the Pan-American Games. "They're great kids." Almost like her own? "It's a special feeling," she said, "more like being a godmother. I worry for them. You follow them and try to help as much as you can. What is important is they see someone behind them, caring about them, asking for results. We try to provide that for them." Don't look for her on tour Ochoa, who turns 33 on Nov. 15, said that, for now, she has no intention of returning to the tour full time. "I [would not] like to play professional golf again all around the world," she said. "[We've talked] about the opportunity maybe one day in the future to play my tournament just because it's my tournament." I [would not] like to play professional golf again all around the world.

[We've talked] about the opportunity maybe one day in the future to play my tournament just because it's my tournament. Lorena Ochoa And beyond that? "I cannot answer," she said. "I don't know how comfortable I'll be, how I am practicing. I am taking it one year at a time. Maybe eventually I play one or two tournaments in the States just to get back and see my friends, but I'm not coming back to the tour." Ochoa's golf playing over the past four years has been limited to the charity appearances and the occasional pro-am, one European Tour event in 2012 and fooling around with little Pedro. "Every time I come to school, he says to me, 'I want to go to the course. I want to go to the course,'" Ochoa said with a laugh. While she admits it is much tougher to enjoy herself playing at a different level, she insists she does not mourn the loss of world-class competition. "I don't think I need it," Ochoa said. "Being a mother gives me so much joy, and I get so busy. I'm OK." Her husband differs slightly with that view.

"We had the chance to play a couple of weeks ago, and obviously she's not at the level she used to play," Conesa said, "but she's still very competitive and doesn't want to lose the touch she has." Still, Ochoa was always admired as much for her genuine warmth as her golf. Legendary are the quiet visits she would have with Mexican golf course employees before tournaments, thanking them for the condition of the course and for representing their country well. Once, Ochoa even cooked breakfast for a group of workers at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, which she went on to win that year in 2008. AP Photo/Chris Carlson Lorena Ochoa was one of the most popular players on tour, and admiring countrymen would often wave the Mexican flag. Some of them responded by greeting her on bended knee. Others followed her around the course on their days off, waving Mexican flags. Just as special was the relationship she fostered with fellow competitors, something Inkster describes as unusual for the top players in the game. "Lorena treated everyone the same, whether they were 154th on the money list or No. 2," Inkster said.

"She always felt she was competing against herself, not anybody else. She wasn't going to lose a friendship over a golf game. "Golf was what she did, not who she was, and everybody just respected who she was as a person. Ask anyone, she was probably a better person than a golfer, and she was a damn good golfer." So good that the idea of walking away with her skills undiminished was hard to fathom for some. In her retirement speech in 2010, Ochoa said she was "leaving the door open" to playing the U.S. Open or Kraft Nabisco in one or two years. But that didn't happen, and Ochoa now has a different perspective. "I think once you've been there, you know how difficult it is to get to the top and how hard the practice and the travel around the world can be," she said. "Now my life is very different, and now my priority is my kids and my family and my work in Mexico." At the time of her retirement, she had played 102 consecutive tournaments over five years without missing a cut. But more challenging than maintaining that streak might be combining it with motherhood.

Ochoa's former caddie Greg Johnston, who does not hesitate in saying Ochoa could be in the "top five or top three" if she did return, said he "wishes all the time" it would happen. Courtesy of Lorena Ochoa Lorena Ochoa has a new set of priorities that include her kids, her family and her work in Mexico. "But in 12 years [caddying for] Juli Inkster, I know what it's all about," he said. "It takes a special type of desire and family and support [to return to the tour after having children]. Not that Lorena doesn't have all that, but she chose to go in a different direction. You almost have to be selfish in a way, with the amount of time you have to put into the sport. "Especially with children, it's not easy. She couldn't go through the motions." In a happy stage of life Lopez says her favorite memories in a career that spanned four decades on tour were those that involved her children. "When I decided to have children, I thought I'd have one baby and probably retire," she said.

"But once I had Ashley, my first child, I still had so much of my competitive spirit in my heart and my soul, I just couldn't walk away. I thought the same thing would happen with Annika [Sorenstam] and Lorena for four, five years after they had children." But those who keep in close touch with Ochoa, like pro golfer Reilley Rankin, say they do not see a woman with regrets but rather one who is fulfilling a role she has long dreamed of. "I think she's extremely happy," Rankin said. "I mean, I was sad when I knew she was going to retire, but I was very happy for her because I knew that's what she wanted and needed to do. I don't think she has looked back for a second, and I don't think she should. It's sad for the golf world, but she is someone who has always followed her heart, and that's what she's doing now." Ochoa still gets the questions, but it is getting easier to accept her answers? "People keep asking me, 'What's better? To win a golf tournament or be a mother?' But how can you ask those things?" she said.

"It's very, very different, for sure. But the best thing in the world to me is being a mother. "I've enjoyed both at different times and at different stages. But right now I am very, very happy." Melissa Isaacson is a columnist for ESPN.com, espnW.com and ESPN Chicago. The award-winning writer has covered Chicago sports for most of her 32-year career, including at the Chicago Tribune, before joining ESPN in 2009, and has also covered tennis since 1986. Related Content Who is more likely to win another Grand Slam singles title? Recognizing Lorena Ochoa | News Recognizing Lorena Ochoa Hispanic Heritage Month recognized Lorena Ochoa. Lorena Ochoa is a Mexican professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 2003 – 2010, and was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for over three years. As the first Mexican golfer of either gender to be ranked number one in the world, she is considered the best Mexican golfer of all time!

Born November 15, 1981 and raised in Guadalajara, Ochoa took up golf at the age of five, won her first state event at the age of six, and her first national event at seven. As a junior, she captured 22 state events in Guadalajara and 44 national events in Mexico. She was very successful in women's collegiate golf, winning the NCAA Player of the Year Awards for 2001 and 2002. In 2003, She was the recipient of the Nancy Lopez Award, which is presented annually to the world's most outstanding female amateur golfer. Ochoa left college after her second year to turn professional, then won three of ten events played on the 2002 Futures Tour. She was also Duramed FUTURES Tour Player of the Year. In her rookie season on the LPGA Tour in 2003, she had eight top-10 finishes, ending the season as the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year. In 2005, Ochoa won the Wegmans Rochester LPGA.

In April 2007, Ochoa overtook Annika Sorenstam to become the world number one ranked golfer. Ochoa won her first major championship in 2007 then won her second major championship in 2008. In April 2010, Ochoa released a statement retiring from professional golf. World number one Ochoa retires from LPGA tour | Reuters Tue Apr 20, 2010 | 3:16 PM EDT World number one Ochoa retires from LPGA tour Lorena Ochoa of Mexico drives the second hole during final round play of the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Championship golf tournament in Rancho Mirage, California, April 4, 2010. Reuters/Gus Ruelas MEXICO CITY Women's world number one Lorena Ochoa announced on Tuesday she will be hanging up her golf clubs. "Lorena Ochoa has confirmed her retirement from LPGA...

more details will be released on Friday at a press conference," the Mexican's management group said on a statement posted on the Golf Channel website ( The 28-year-old has dominated the women's tour for the last three years with a string of titles, including two majors, that have made her famous in soccer-mad Mexico, where golf is seen as a pastime for a tiny wealthy elite. She married the chief executive of Mexican airline AeroMexico last year in her home city of Guadalajara. She recently said she would likely take a break to have children. "I always wanted to play for 10 or 12 years and I am headed for the eighth," she said in February. "I want to start a family, but it will be once I retire." Ochoa first picked up a golf club aged just five and was soon winning junior competitions. She also excelled at athletics, tennis, swimming and basketball before choosing to concentrate on golf. The LPGA's player of the year from 2006 to 2009, Ochoa enrolled at the University of Arizona on a golf scholarship in 2000 but left after her sophomore year to turn professional.

(Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Pritha Sarkar; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com) ADVERTISEMENT Lorena Effect: World's Top Women's Golfer Popularizes Sport Across Mexico, World News from Around the Americas | March 2008 Lorena Effect: World's Top Women's Golfer Popularizes Sport Across Mexico, World Theresa Bradley - Associated Press go to original Fans from Mexico celebrate as Lorena Ochoa wins the ADT Championship golf tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla. Ochoa has willed her way to the top of the women's game, drawing millions of new fans to an increasingly international sport. (AP/J. Pat Carter) Mexico City ï¿½ From a leafy golf course in Mexico's second-largest, sprawling city, Lorena Ochoa has willed her way to the top of the women's game, drawing millions of new fans to an increasingly international sport. In Mexico, admirers point to "the Lorena effect" to explain how the world's No.

1 female golfer is putting the sport on the map in a country where green fees are often five times the average daily wage and soccer rules hearts. "She's an icon," said Hector Juarez, editor of the Mexico City-based magazine Caras Golf. "Most people in Mexico don't know what golf really is, but they know Lorena Ochoa. That's a huge gain. She's giving golf massive exposure." Ochoa, one of 120 active international players on the tour, tees off Friday at the MasterCard Classic in Huixquilucan, Mexico, the first of three LPGA events in the country. Without her, odds are Mexico would not have any LPGA events. One of them is the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. The only other living player whose name is the title of the tournament is Arnold Palmer. The 26-year-old Ochoa is just establishing her dominance in her sixth LPGA season, replacing Annika Sorenstam as the world's top player last April. Ochoa won her first major, the British Open, in August and set a record for season tournament earnings with nearly $4.4 million last year.

Two weeks ago at the HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore, their only meeting this season so far, Ochoa buried Sorenstam by 11 strokes, shooting 20 under par. Sorenstam is not competing this weekend in Mexico. Ochoa, who grew up with her brothers on a Guadalajara golf course, is known as much for her grace as her game. "Lorena sets a best-of-class example of not just how to be a great athlete, but how to be a great human being," LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said. "Lorena has given much more to the game than she has taken." Ochoa is one of the youngest golfers to start her own philanthropic foundation, adopting an elementary school for 241 low-income children near her hometown. Foundation director Carmen Bolio credits Ochoa for increasing the number of donors through the "Lorena effect." Ochoa and her brother Alejandro, who is her manager, also have opened two golf academies and plan three more this year to train and certify instructors and help students access the country's cloistered greens.

"We're interested in growing golf in Mexico in every sense: in the number of players, the number of people who follow it on television, the number of golf courses," Alejandro Ochoa said. Mexico counts 108 million people, but just 50,000 golfers and about 220 courses, according to the Mexican Golf Federation, compared to some 16,000 courses in the United States. About a quarter of the Mexican courses are at tourist resorts, and nearly all others are private, with membership often topping $10,000. Still, more prospects are earning NCAA scholarships, and junior golf participation has swelled 25 percent since 2006 in central Mexico, according to the federation. After all, Ochoa won five straight junior world championships and then had two NCAA player of the year seasons at the University of Arizona. "Lorena has opened doors and is blazing a trail for these young players," said Ian Gardner, director of the Mexican golf federation. "We've had more success in the past two or three years on an amateur level than almost ever before." And the flood of media coverage devoted to Ochoa in Mexico is raising awareness of the sport.

"I remember when they told me I had to cover golf, I practically cried," said Juarez, who has followed Ochoa since 2000. About eight Mexican reporters covered the sport then, he said, while more than 100 do today. But Ochoa's reach extends beyond Mexico. "Every time I go back home, I see more and more young players with great potential," LPGA golfer Virada Nirapathpongporn, 25, from Thailand, said in an e-mail. Ochoa's success "goes to show that golf can be played and mastered by anyone, from any country ... as long as they have that tremendous desire." Ruffin Beckwith, director of Golf 20/20 at the World Golf Foundation, likens Ochoa to Palmer, who got golf out of the country club in the 1950s, causing thousands of public courses to be built across the United States. Forty years later, U.S. golf is stalling, as fewer rounds are played and more courses are closing than opening, Beckwith said.

Ochoa could unwittingly reverse that trend, Beckwith suggested, drawing millions of Mexican-American fans who were too young or far away to remember four-time LPGA player of the year Nancy Lopez. On manicured greens from Las Vegas to Florida, Ochoa connects most visibly with countrymen who also earn a living off the game, greeting groundskeepers, restaurant and construction workers, signing flags and programs, and hosting breakfasts just hours before tee time to thank them for their work. To many, she embodies their own dreams and struggles to get ahead, at home and in the world. "Mexicans are very proud of you," President Felipe Calderon told Ochoa at the 2007 LPGA Corona Championship in Morelia, Mexico. "Lorena represents the Mexico we long to see, a Mexico that refuses to be defeated, a Mexico that fights, a Mexico that opens ways in the world, a Mexico that wins."

Question: Lorena. Ochoa, the world's number one woman golfer, is from which country?
Answer: MEXICO